1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioning control system for vehicles for common use.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally known is a remote starter system for an air conditioner using a remote-controlled engine starter for a man-operated vehicle. This remote starter system comprises a remote-controlled terminal, a radio device mounted on an electric vehicle and an ignition control device mounted on the electric vehicle. When an ignition starting command is executed by the remote terminal, the command is received at the electric vehicle by the radio to thereby turn on the ignition and start an engine, whereby the air conditioner of the electric vehicle is started for operation.
In the conventional remote starter system, however, an exclusive or dedicated remote-controlled terminal is needed for each vehicle. Therefore, in a case where a number of self-operation vehicles need to be controlled collectively, there is caused a problem that a corresponding number of such dedicated terminals have to be used, which is very inefficient.
In addition, in recent years when much attention is drawn to environmental issues, a technique is proposed in which with a view to attaining an improvement in solving problems with air pollution and traffic jams, vehicles are commonly used in a specific area. However, as in this case, when the remote starter systems are applied to a number of self-operation vehicles, the remote-controlled terminals need to be mounted on the respective vehicles, and this results in a tremendous waste.
On the other hand, when trying to activate air conditioners of a number of self-operation vehicles in a simple collectively controlled fashion, there is caused a problem that the residual capacity of batteries of all of the waiting self-operation vehicles is undesirably reduced.
To this end, an object of the present invention is to provide an air conditioning control system for vehicles for common use which can eliminate the aforesaid waste even in a case where a number of self-operation vehicles are controlled in a collective fashion, and can provide an optimum in-compartment environment to users immediately after they rent out such vehicles.
With a view to solving the aforesaid problem, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided an air conditioning control system for vehicles for common use including reservation means (for example, a reservation terminal 9, as described in an embodiment hereinbelow) for reserving vehicles for common use for delivery for rent, as well as for specifying corresponding delivery times for rent (for example, a delivery time T2 for rent as described in the embodiment below), and means for starting for operation air conditioners (for example, an air conditioner 5 as described in the same embodiment) of the vehicles for common use so reserved (for example, a vehicle 4 as described in the embodiment) when the corresponding delivery times for rent, which are inputted through the reservation means, approach.
With such construction, since the air conditioners of the reserved vehicles are started for operation when the specified delivery times for rent approach, an air conditioned state can be provided inside the compartments of the vehicles allocated to users at the specified delivery times for rent.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an air conditioning control system wherein the plurality of vehicles for common use are electric vehicles, and wherein air conditioners of only those of the electric vehicles are started for operation in accordance with the residual capacity of batteries thereof specifically, only those of the electric that are waiting for delivery for rent and which are equipped with batteries having the residual capacity equal to or greater than a predetermined amount (for example, 80% or greater, as described in the embodiment below).
With such construction, in a case where a vehicle is reserved which has a battery the residual capacity of which is low, the air conditioner of the vehicle is not activated, whereby a case is prevented from taking place in which the residual capacity of the battery is reduced further from the current low residual capacity.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided an air conditioning control system wherein the air conditioners of reserved vehicles are started for operation predetermined lengths of time (for example, an hour as described in the embodiment below) prior to the delivery times for rent specified through the reservation means.
With such construction, the environment inside the compartments of the reserved vehicles can be set as desired by starting for operation the air conditioners thereof predetermined lengths of time prior to the specified delivery times for rent.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided an air conditioning control system wherein the means for starting for operation the air conditioners of the reserved vehicles for common use comprises a supervision radio device (for example, a supervision radio device 2, as described in the embodiment below) on a supervision side (for example, a vehicle supervision 1, as described in the embodiment below) for transmitting to the reserved vehicles a command for self-operation, and a self-operation controlling radio device (for example, self-operation controlling radio devices 6 mounted on the vehicles respectively, as described in the embodiment below) on a vehicle side for receiving the command from the supervision radio device on the supervision side.
With such construction, a plurality of reserved vehicles can be dealt with, and the air conditioners of only those reserved vehicles can be started for operation in a collective fashion.